Babies!!!

Yay!

So. This morning at 5 a.m. I woke up to Dustin saying, "Kayte! What is that?" I took the cotton balls out of my ears and heard very distinctive sqeals that sounded like they came from the itty bittiest babies in the world coming from the baby monitor. I said, "OH MY GOODNESS! DID SHE HAVE THEM?!!" I flew out of bed and took just enough time to pull on my sasquatch suit over my underwear, scoop up my birthing kit, and head for the barn. When I entered the barn I could hear then squalling, and it was totally surreal when I shined the flashlight into Harmony's stall and saw her standing there in the dark with two wet little black and white BABIES infront of her!! I said, "Harmony, what'd you DO?!" This is what I saw:
They were both already up on their feet but still covered in birthing fluid and goo. I wiped them down a bit with the bed pads I bought just for that purpose, but Harmony was already industriously licking them off. She is the best little mama I've ever seen! Any worries I had about her being a first time mom and not knowing what to do have since flown out the window. She is absolutely intoxicated with her babies. If they so much as make a sound she is right on top of them licking them and comforting them.
It's hard to show how truly tiny they are. Here is a picture next to Ayden, who is only 3 1/2.
In all the excitement I did not even think to see what sex they were for a while. The little black one with the white belt is.... A GIRL!!!! And the white one with black spots is a little buckling. ALSO YAY!!! Since I am trying to build up a milking herd, obviously I was hoping for girls, but I knew if Harmony were to have a boy who is conformationally sound, I could keep him as a breeding buck to alternate with Puck. I don't have any Nigerian Dwarf bucks available for stud service within driving distance, so it makes sense to own my own.

So here is a close up of the doeling after she'd dried off a little bit. Come to find out she's not black and white afterall, but her back end is the most interesting shade of black and brown, it almost looks copper. Gorgeous! Mom's favorite thing about her is her one black eye patch. This is a picture of the buckling, who is not quite as vigorous as his twin sister. She is so perky that she was already acting spastic and trying to bounce around within an hour of birth. He mostly stood around looking tired, and was much more difficult to get to nurse the first time. The doeling got right down to business, dropped to her elbows, and butted Harmony's uddder until she found a teat to fit in her mouth.
He never did really figure out how to nurse, and I ended up milking some milk into a syringe (minus the needle, of course) and giving it to him that way, which he did not appreciate. I also gave both babies and mom a couple squirts of Nutri-Drench, a supplement to give them all a little boost after their ordeal. A few minutes after getting some colostrum down him, he perked up a little and I got him to latch on a couple times on his own before I had to go to work. He's been a little groggy all day, but this evening as I sat in there with them (no doubt sitting in something awful) he seems to have perked up quite a bit and I saw him go find a teat twice on his own and grab some munchie.

Harmony is just the best. I got some birthing fluid all over my hands when I was helping to clean them off this morning and she got so distracted licking ME that at one point I finally had to tell her, "Honey, this is really nice and all, but it's time to lick your babies, not me." I ended up picking a baby up and putting it in her face to help her re-prioritize. But, I have to say, after all that she just stood there letting me milk her tiny little teats into that syringe, even lifted her leg so I could get at it better. WOW! I'm used to Tierra who will not let me within a cubic foot of her udder without a proper grain bribe. I suspect I may now be dubbed one of Harmony's babies and am therefore allowed equal access to "the goods."

After everything had calmed down and both babies demonstrated that they could nurse a little, I came back to the house and prepared a big bowl of warm water with molasses in it for Harmony, which goats are said to appreciate. As I was mixing this brown water, I thought there was no way she was going to actually drink this. My goats don't do anything typical goats do, such as eat peanuts or vegetables, so I felt gooey stinky water would definitely be out. But when I showed up with it and a bowl of grain, she went for the warm molasses water first and sucked it all down! The grain followed quickly, though. By that time she was passing the afterbirth, which I think is actually quite pretty in it's own way. What other thing in nature can you say is that color? And yes, it is safe to assume at this point that I am going to post a picture. So brace yourself.
For those of you who think this picture is gross, all I can say is that I feel sorry for you. This is life, and that thing grew two perfect little goat babies out of nothing in 5 months flat. Wow. In some cultures they bury a woman's placenta and have a ceremony for it, which I can really understand. Harmony's ended up wrapped in a bed pad and stuffed in a dirty yellow 5 gallon bucket, not quite the beautiful send off, but at least I took a picture!

After that I tied off the doeling's long umbilical cord (you can see it in her photos) with some dental floss and trimmed it up a bit. Then I dipped both babies' umbilical cords in iodine, which they did not enjoy one bit. You submerge it in a small cap full, then tip them over on their back to completely saturate the entire thing. Harmony didn't appreciate me making her babies scream, but it took all of 3 seconds to do and I'm pretty sure she's since forgiven me.

So, all in all it was a fabulous day. Everything I said about Harmony having poor timing I take back. She let me get a whole night's sleep, didn't even need me to assist as she'd gone and done everything herself, and I didn't have to miss a minute of work. She even had them early enough that I could play for a couple hours and help get nursing underway with time left for a shower and to get Ayden off to school. I am a little disappointed to not have witnessed the birth, but this way there was no anxiety or stress, just, voila! Babies! Besides, I still have Tierra's to look forward to, and if she has as many babies as we suspect, that birthing counts for two in and of itself!

Thus concludes the first birthing on our farm, which by the way is officially named Gypsy's Dream Farm. :)